The Ideologues Spinning Wisconsin Health Policy To The Right Are At It Again

A few months ago, the ideological imperative that is the Walker administration was balking at federal funds to fight obesity and smoking.

Now it's praising our state's health care delivery system, as-is, even though the outside author of a major study says otherwise, reports the Cap Times:

If you read the state's press release about the new report or went to an invitation-only press briefing Wednesday you would have been told that the study shows that reforms will mess up what is already working fine in Wisconsin.

"We have one of the lowest uninsured rates and one of the most robust insurance marketplaces in the nation, all achieved without federal mandates," Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis G. Smith said in the press release, which lists what it calls "major concerns" that are "demonstrated by the results of this study."

But that's not the conclusion Gruber came to at all.

"They picked out the most negative aspects of the report to highlight," [study author Jonathan] Gruber told me in an interview. "Overall I think health care reform is a great thing for Wisconsin."

With Walker's people - - our new Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith comes from the 'free market' front line against national health care and President Obama's initiatives - - it's ideology first, then substance, then facts.